sculpted in 1969 by Pier Arjen de Groot
These days, the name Pieter Beyntsma is no longer known, but in 1590, the official historiographer of Friesland, Suffridus Petrus, included him in his book on Authors from Friesland. In that book, he is called Petrus Poetinus. Pieter used both names himself when he added all his scholarly knowledge to his brand-new books from Venice.
“Petrus Poetinus van Bentzma was born in Stavoren from a noble family.” This is how Suffridus Petrus (1527-1597) started the second chapter of his ninth decade. Suffridus was a lawyer and historian who took the humanist motto ad fontesseriously, which meant that he always looked at source material with a critical eye. He seems to be the only person who provides information on Poetinus, a minister in Boxum who is believed to have lived around 1490 and was esteemed by his contemporaries for his literary qualities.
Interestingly, Suffridus mentions that he understands that some handwritten manuscripts by Poetinus have been preserved, but that he has not been able to find them. Suffridus appeals to the owners of these manuscripts to share them with the public. Poetinus’ authorship is confirmed in the famous city atlas by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg from 1572—in the caption for the copperplate of Stavoren: “Originating from Stavoren were Petrus Poetinus and Nanno the philosopher … both famous for their published books.”
A book in the University of Groningen Library confirms Poetinus’ scholarship. It is a miscellanyof three editions of the Roman satirical poets Persius, Juvenal, and Horace. Throughout this book, someone has added lots of notes between the lines and next to the text, in a beautiful, small, but clear humanist hand. The notes range from individual meanings of words to interpretative annotations and even complete texts. There is no doubt that all these annotations were written by the same person. Fortunately, this person identifies himself on the first page (in Latin): “This book belongs to Petrus Poetinus from Stavoren.” Under the colophonof the Juvenal edition, he has written a slightly more extensive introduction: “This book belongs to Petrus Stator Poetinus Beyntsma from Stavoren in Frisia.”
Throughout the book, Poetinus made notes between the printed lines and in the margins around the text. This starts on the very first page, which contains no printed text. Poetinus has filled the whole page with an explanation of the term prologus (preface). He has copied this explanation (with a mention of the source) from a book about the correct Latin spelling of Greek loanwords by the humanist Johannes Tortellius from 1471; at the time, this was recent scholarship. This way of annotating occurs throughout the book. Poetinus was clearly interested in the latest knowledge about the Greek and Latin languages, and the culture of ancient Greek and Roman times, as it was published in Italy in his time by humanist scholars such as Jacobus Philippus van Bergamo and Niccolo Perotti and Cristoforo Landino.
The content of Poetinus’ annotations varies. Sometimes they are simple meanings of words or short explanations (always in Latin), sometimes they are more extensive explanations of the content of the text. In at least one instance, Poetinus has corrected a mistake by the Venetian printer: he has added twelve verses that the printer left out from an ode by Horace (3.29) in the margin. He also added the scholarly comments on the full ode by Cristoforo Landino (1424-1498).
Poetinus’ references to Landino confirm that he was a humanist too, and was interested in cutting-edge knowledge about classical languages and cultures. Landino’s comments were first printed in 1482 and they were an immediate bestseller. The edition that was published less than a year later in Venice was particularly popular. Is it a coincidence that the books Poetinus owned or used have all been printed in Venice? Does this mean that he studied in the north of Italy, like many of his contemporaries and scholars from the north of the Netherlands, including Rudolph Agricola?
Poetinus’ interest in humanist knowledge seems unusual, as Italian humanism was only just spreading beyond the Alps around 1480, but in the north of the Netherlands, and in Frisia in particular, there was a lot of interest in Italian humanism at an early stage. In Aduard, scholars interested in humanism were already organizing meetings in the 1460s to inspire each other. Poetinus’ book confirms the impression that Frisia was an early hotspot of Italian humanism.
In 2023, another of Poetinus’ books with many annotations in his hand was found, in… Taiwan!
Author: Adrie van der Laan
